The Prince of Mournful Thoughts and Other Stories

by Caroline Kim

Winner of the 2020 Drue Heinz Literature Prize

Finalist, 2020 Northern California Book Award
Longlisted, 2021 Pen America Robert W. Bingham Prize 
Longlisted, 2020 Story Prize 

Exploring what it means to be human through the Korean diaspora, Caroline Kim’s stories feature many voices. From a teenage girl in 1980’s America, to a boy growing up in the middle of the Korean War, to an immigrant father struggling to be closer to his adult daughter, or to a suburban housewife whose equilibrium depends upon a therapy robot, each character must face their less-than-ideal circumstances and find a way to overcome them without losing themselves. Language often acts as a barrier as characters try, fail, and momentarily succeed in connecting with each other. With humor, insight, and curiosity, Kim’s wide-ranging stories explore themes of culture, communication, travel, and family. Ultimately, what unites these characters across time and distance is their longing for human connection and a search for the place—or people—that will feel like home.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Asian American

222 pages, Hardcover

First published October 6, 2020

Reviews

[Rincey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like most short story collections, the success of each story varies but overall this is an enjoyable collection. The title story is the most impactful and elevated the whole experience

Watch me talk about this book in my January Wrap Up Part 2: https://youtu.be/IBtZ-U9wq80

[Tamsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each short story really packs a punch of lingering yearning, which I really dig. My favorite, by far, was "Picasso's Blue Period."

Some lines I liked:

"She remembered all the trouble he had caused her - premature birth, lethargic to feed, constant whining, and maybe because she had coddled him, the furious temper that made him shout and stamp his feet even as a mere baby. Yet he was the one who remembered her the most, the one who put the choicest morsels on her plate and beat her back when she was tired. She could still hear him calling, Mother, Mother, I'm here! She wondered why she had been born, why anybody was - it was bewildering and unknown."

"But, of course, Americans find it easy to declare their love for each other. I love you, I love you, they all say but then manage to divorce each other several years later. I have never told my wife that I love her and I have never heard it from her. It is unnecessary. It would be like saying I breathe or I think or I live."

"I want to ask her if she is afraid, but do not. Instead, I watch her and my son-in-law speak softly to each other. I understand then that she is no longer mine, but she was once. She was."

"We are telling about our love affairs. We have taken a knowing, mocking tone as if to say yes, we knew we were being foolish, but that we were also helpless."

"There is nothing so soothing as being read to. All children know it."

[Queralt✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such an incredible reading experience. I very rarely love short story collections, but this one was incredible. Caroline Kim's writing is impeccable and I truly enjoyed how each narrator had a distinctive voice, nailing the voice of people with broken English or children (it is so rare to see children written 'properly,' I think we have normalized the adult-ish perspectives they are often given in literature).

I highly recommend this collection to anybody who likes reading about the Korean-American experience as well as Korean stories (about the war and the yangban times).

- "Mr. Oh" - A Korean man living in the US struggles with physical pain and is told to go to the shrink. 5⭐ - I loved the man's reflections about what being Korean means (it's funny because some of the 'stereotypes' he mentioned are the same ones that we use for Catalans?) and the writing was just top-notch here, Kim did an amazing job at writing the 'broken Korean' throughout.

- "Arirang" - Set in a village in 1949, a woman struggles to get pregnant while her old friend keeps having baby after baby. As they are both shamed for the two things, they find solace in talking about womanhood as, silently, the Korean War approaches. 5⭐ - just beautiful. everything. The bit where they sing Arirang have me goosebumps and the scenes about the war were just 10/10.

- "King of the Gipsies" - A lady meets the King of the Gipsies. 3⭐.

- "Lucia, Russell, and Me" -Lucia, the best friend and neighbour of the main character, has had her mom's new boyfriend move in and they have a strange relationship. The two of them navigate changes as they get to know their new neighbour Russell. 5⭐. I loved everything here, I just remember finishing the story and realizing I had been 100% immersed in it.

- "Seoul" - The story of a guy and his family during the Korean War, how it started and what they did to survive. 4⭐.

- "Magdalena" - A Korean church in the US is conflicted about one of their members after she turns eccentric following her divorce. 5⭐.

- "Picasso’s Blue Period" - A man struggles with how he is seen by his family as his daughter is about to give birth. 4⭐.

- "A Change Is Gonna Come" - A young woman travelling the world reminisces her last relationship as she finds herself in a new one and wonders why she always falls for other noman men. 2.5⭐. In all honestly, this one was weird because I too move a lot and I have met people like the ones described in the story, they are not my cup of tea.

- "Therapy Robot" - A Korean woman is given a therapy robot and she keeps a diary about how things are going. 5⭐. Brilliant.

- "Not Usual for Korean" - The main character's brother has been kicked out of school and her parents want her to talk to him. It's a mess. 3⭐.

- "The Prince of Mournful Thoughts" - An old man recounts his experience working for a Prince that was haunted by being disliked by the King. 4⭐. The King did the right thing.

- "Goodbye, Goodbye" - A young kid says goodbye to Korea as she moves to the US. 3⭐.

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are incredibly and meticulously crafted stories. I loved their range of geography and time periods. This is why I can’t resist the magic of short fiction. Highly recommended. This author’s voice sings in marvelous ways.

[Sandie · Rating 4 out of 5]

These twelve stories by Caroline Kim explore the Korean culture and their immigrant experience through time. The first story, Mr. Oh, is about a middle-aged man who has come to America. He has a wife who he loves more than she loves him and two successful grown children. He has a laundromat and he has unexplained pains and depression that he wants explanations for. His life hasn't turned out as he imagined and he isn't sure what's next.

My favorite story was Magdelena. A sixteen year old girl tells about going on a picnic with immigrant families on her birthday and then about going with her mother to check on an older woman from their church. They find the woman near death, dehydrated and almost starving. She is obviously on the brink of a psychotic breakdown and the girl's mother calls an ambulance and then accompanies the woman leaving her daughter behind to work out what all of this means.

Readers who are interested in other cultures will enjoy these stories as will anthology readers. Kim attempts to convey the entirety of the Korean experience, especially that of those who have been forced to move elsewhere in order to survive. This book is recommended for anthology readers and those interested in the Asian culture.

[Christina Ek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Admirable collection of both Korean-Americans stories and tales from the old country set in the 18th and 19th centuries.
"Not Usual For Koreans," "Magdalena," A Change is Gonna Come," "Seoul" and "Lucia, Russell and Me."
Interested to read more by this author.

[Josephine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arirang / Lucia, Russell, and Me / The Prince of Mournful Thoughts

[casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short stories are magic! And Caroline Kim does a swimmingly good job at her craft, darting from Seoul to Boston to Montana to Northern California to who knows where and when and with whom, but I believed in it when I was reading, and that's the most important part, right?

Also, what a title.

[Scarlett Hester · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed each of the stories in this collection. They are all different, but still speak to Korean-Korean American-ness in similar ways. The Price of Mournful Thoughts was by far the strongest and most devastating story. Great collection!

[Kate Wisel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Caroline Kim’s breathtaking and polyphonic collection includes a diverse set of brazen and candid narrator’s: an on-the-move widower in a foreign country, a helpless father witnessing the terrifying birth of his granddaughter, a middle-aged woman who engages with a therapy robot and reluctantly exchanges her journals for data. In some stories, women come of age and men come of age in old age. They are impressive in breadth—they cross generations, eras, they are told in first person, second person, third person, and are structured in various forms—epistolary, flash, epic, even quasi-historical fiction. They are set in places that span the globe, from the suburbs of Boston and rural New England to California to the rue de Turenne in Paris to farmland in Korea to vast Montana to a village in Thailand to Seoul during the Korean War and back again. Her stories are about the discord that exists between these intersections, and how mutual understanding is forged alongside this tension. They are also about pride and regret, the wonder and failure of language, the bizarre nature of consumer culture, the precarious walls between familial bonds. They are about what we can and can’t choose for our lives, the ways in which our bodies pursue our own histories. Her stories show us what power exists when you look twice, and about how movement can save you. They are not afraid to show us something ugly, some mistake, some failure of the mind or spirit (this is a direct quote from “A Change is Gunna Come” from which the narrator comments: the buildings are so beautiful they don’t register, which I think is apt.) Her stories have taught me something about what it means to be useful to others, how to begin again, where to locate comfort in an unfamiliar world, being beautifully outside it, as she says, and I am better for reading them.

[Jess]

Review to come.

[Lyndsey]

Enjoyed these short stories

The retelling of the story of Prince Sado and his wife, Lady Hong stood out. The afterword about the story’s origin was interesting - it was about a sweet, intelligent prince and heir to the Korean throne in the 1700s, who descended into madness because of his father’s - the emperor’s - constant criticism. It sounds hard to believe, but is apparently true - Lady Hong wrote it herself (unusual) in the local language vs Chinese (also highly unusual). Both the prince’s mother and wife suggested he be killed because he was endangering his son’s life out of jealousy (the emperor adored his grandson and couldn’t stand his son). How horrible.

The other stories were also very good. The reminded me of Jhumpa Lahiri’s first book, Interpreter of Maladies, that won the Pulitzer. To be fair, Lahiri’s stories felt a few notches more poignant.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lucky me. I somehow started off 2021 with one of the best short-story collections I’ve read in a long while.

The Prices of Mournful Thoughts is a kaleidoscope of Korean identity. These stories are human, thoughtful, and quietly profound.

With a lot of short story collections, the stories often bleed together and make it hard to discern between them. Caroline Kim manages to make each story unique and memorable in its own way. Each story feels fresh, thanks to the rich, multigenerational characters.

For fans of short fiction or great storytelling — add this collection to your bookshelf. You won’t be disappointed.

[Alison Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly...the title story should have been expanded into a novella and the rest of the stories mostly tossed in the bin.

Dang, that sounds so mean. But like...I don't know, a lot of these stories just left me asking "what was the point". Not that every story has to have A Message™ or whatever, but there should be something the reader is meant to take away from it, and with a number of these, I took away nothing but confusion and lost time. I appreciated the author wanting to tell all of these various aspects about Korean identity and history, and there were certainly some strong moments, especially regarding difficult family relationships and confronting painful decisions. I also liked how broad the collection is as far as place and time period. And as I said, the title story was really great, almost read more like a fairy tale (though a super dark one, but then...most fairy tales are quite darker than Disney wants you to think) and was quite engaging. Fairly up and down for me overall, though, and more down than up. Ah well.

Individual story ratings:
Mr Oh - 2
Arirang - 3.5
King of the Gipsies - 1
Lucia, Russell, and Me - 3.5
Seoul - 4
Magdalena - 1.5
Picasso's Blue Period - 4
A Change is Gonna Come - 2
Therapy Robot - 2
Not Usual For Korean - 3
The Prince of Mournful Thoughts - 4.5
Goodbye, Goodbye - 2

[Plainqoma · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stories with a hint of Korean culture and history, as well as the present story of the Korean immigrants living in America and all over the world.

A quote from each of my favourite stories from this collection.

Arirang - “This is all you want. To give birth one time. To have something to love and love you.”

Seoul - “What they wanted was so simple : to be able to eat and breathe freely, work their small li of land, have children and grandchildren, live and die facing the same sunset they have watched all their lives.”

Picasso’s Blue Period - “It’s curious, that one speaks of loss when someone dies. It isn’t loss at all. She turned to me, her face bright and shiny. It is a weight that must be held, must be carried. It lives while we live. And that is all right.”

Therapy Robot - “Look at my own parents. Both of them survived Korean War. As children! They witness atrocities they won’t talk about. My mother once mentioned seeing dead bodies in the streets. Otherwise, she said the war wasn’t that bad. Not that bad! The worst was hiding her father and brother under the house so they wouldn’t be conscripted by either the North or South Korean armies.”

The Prince of Mournful Thoughts - “I tell you this story, Sir, in order that you may know that nothing in life is to be taken for granted, not even the love between a father and the son.”

[Chris Wang · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the end I only finished three stories from this collection: Mr. Oh, Arirang, and Lucia, Russell, and Me. What drew me to the book in the first place was the author’s later story Hiding Spot, which won a short story prize in 2024 and left me curious about her earlier work.

Among the three, the first two really stood out. Mr. Oh and Arirang are both powerful in the way they explore Korean identity, immigration to America, and the entangled experiences of being East Asian and “other.” By contrast, Lucia, Russell, and Me felt flat and didn’t resonate with me much.

As I kept going, though, I found myself slipping into a kind of aesthetic fatigue. Many of the stories deal with history, the Korean and North Korean wars, even touches of sci-fi or speculative elements—which aren’t really my thing. Eventually I lost the will to keep reading, so for me this book landed in a “half-abandoned” state.

[Rachel Swearingen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Prince of Mournful Thoughts is so engrossing that I finished it in just a few days. Caroline Kim's storytelling has so much energy, and I was transported by the many voices in this collection, and the surprising, yet recognizable details. Be prepared for both sly humor and sudden heartbreak, for stories set in America and S. Korea, and spanning centuries. The title story is inspired by the question of what Kim's life might have been like had her family remained in Korea. (Be sure to read her end notes.) That question led her to the genre-defying work of Lady Hong, and to her fantastic title story.

[C Adán · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was truly an incredible book. There is such a wide range of emotions contained in this collection which made every story hit a slightly different note, which I loved as a reader. “Arirang” and “A Change is Gonna Come” are among my favorite pieces, though the title story is definitely up there as well. The notes I found especially illuminating as a writer of a diaspora myself: what exactly makes us “from” a place? Kim is a gifted writer and I can’t wait to her next work of literature. Highly recommend this collection ❤️

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic collection that explores the complexities of family, love, womanhood, and happiness from a variety of perspectives. As a Korean and a Bostonian I loved all the references and the stories’ roots in Korean tradition. Some stories were lackluster in comparison to others. My favorites were “Arirang,” “Picasso’s Blue Period” and “Magdalena”

“Sacrifice was engraved into every cell of her being” (“Lydia, Russell, and me”)

“I must try to know this pain before it fells me” (“Picasso’s Blue Period”)

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I tracked this down because of Caroline Kim's story Hiding Spot in the 2024 O. Henry Prize compilation. These stories are VERY, VERY good. My favorites were Mr. Oh, Arirang, Picasso's Blue Period, and Therapy Robot. The stories with adolescent narrators also shined: Lucia, Russell, and Me, Magdalena, and Not Usual for Korean. I cannot wait for her next collection!

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent collection of short stories written by a Korean American author. They run the gamut of tales about ancient Korea, the Korean War, moving to America, being a Korean immigrant in America, being the child of an immigrant, and just being human. Very well rounded and so readable. Highly recommend especially for understanding another culture and the immigrant experience.

[em · Rating 4 out of 5]

While some of the short stories were stronger than others, I appreciated Kim's ability to give readers a brief look into the lives of these individuals in a way that felt complete. Of course part of you wants to continue their individual stories and see how things unfold, but I think the amount that was given was the perfect taste.

[Ruth Garcia-Corrales · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories of Korean families and their challenges during war times, their first years in the states and others. Short stories are fun unless you want more, in this case there were several that you wanted them to continue. Great job Caroline Kim.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of those books that makes you wish there were more than 5 stars. Every story sings and stings.

[Polly Callahan]

found in this review of books https://electricliterature.com/10-con...

[jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

My god I cannot BELIEVE how long and hard I cried after reading "Picasso's Blue Period." The perfect short story. Absolutely beautiful punch to the gut. "Arirang" and "Mr. Oh" are also incredible.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A masterful collection - I loved the range of voices, characters and styles Kim employs in her vivid & captivating stories. Many were emotionally moving, and all were beautifully written.

[Jordan | jord_reads_books · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Prince of Mournful Thoughts and Other Stories you will find tales of humans across the Korean diaspora, told in first, second, and third points of view.

The stories range from the early 1900s to modern-day, and feature characters both old and young as they deal with difficult situations and learn both about themselves and the world around them.

There’s a sixteen-year-old who watches as the mental health of a woman at her church slowly unravels. A boy who is growing up during the Korean War. A girl growing up in 80s America. Mr. Oh, an immigrant struggling with both mental and physical health. And my personal favorite, a suburban housewife using a therapy robot.

Mental health and well-being is a major theme across this collection, but what also connects these stories is the search for human connection and understanding.

Caroline Kim was the winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize for this collection, and it’s easy to see why. The stories are powerful in their own right, each with a distinctive and beautifully crafted voice. But together they tell the story of something everyone can relate to: the search for someplace that feels like home.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this because Alexander Chee mentioned it on Twitter, and because my mother-in-law is Korean. A near-perfect collection -- perhaps only 1-2 stories left me questioning their comparability to the best of the collection. But overall, just an amazing range of time periods, emotions evoked, character perspectives... I enjoyed each story so much.

[Ramona · Rating 5 out of 5]

These tender but truthful stories should be required reading. Each one bears the mark of an experienced storyteller. I loved these stories so much and have no doubt I will read many of them again and again.